Feb 8, 2011

The Hallway Makeunder

Our hallways have been one of the more frustrating spaces in the house. Remember this lil' before nugget?

All wallpapery and penitentiary and pink. In the summer we had them painted by Janet's Painting who I from time to time have the urge to call just to hear her stories and make my house look pretty.

The base of the hallway wall, for WHATEVER outrageous reason, is faux concrete block. Funny I haven't come across that design in other MCM houses nor has it had a revival of any sort since then. Weird. As we found out, the only colour that looks good on faux concrete block are shades of concrete block.

Faux concrete block and baby who thinks she's helping.

Original entryway tiles. Not sure of the name of this tile (it's like a lino) but I spent one long long evening cleaning them with a toothbrush and they still looked like this.

As I automatically default to 'purist', we left the baseboards in their original untouched, albeit rough original state after having the walls repainted. Ever since we painted the hallway, there's just been no love. It just feels old and dowdy and still a tad penitentiary.

And the table I picked up at the Interfaith for $5 with the glue globs on top is not doing it any favours.

So recently inspired by my girlfriend's office, owner of Speckles & Weeds - an adorable and witty local greeting card company - we decided to paint the baseboards a glossy version of the same grey (Benjamin Moore's Escarpment CC-518).

Speckles & Weeds boardroom

This is a big deal for my purist roots. Like piercing your daughter's ears when she's 6. Below inspiration for the rest of our plans for the hallway. I'll post some 'afters' tomorrow.

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Now wait a minute - I posted a comment on this blog a couple of days ago. I think I said something like "you big tease. I want after photos now!". But the comment isn't here now. Hmm. Anyhow, where are the after photos.

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I own a sweet mid century house in the inner city in Calgary that I am restoring with my husband and two wee girls (they mainly just make messes). I write about my restoration adventures, mid century heritage and attempting to prairie garden at 4000 ft elevation.